ECHO Festival, Belgrade

The "Love-In" On Big War Island

By Daniel Simpson

Click for festival line-up

Once upon a time, I resigned from the New York Times to run a music festival, convinced it could kindle a Balkan Summer of Love.

This idea was sparked by attending two events: the 2001 Kumbh Mela in India, where millions of pilgrims converged on a sandbank where two rivers meet, and EXIT 2002 in northern Serbia, where bright-eyed youths raved from dusk until dawn for nine days straight.

I went to EXIT as a journalist. By the time I wrote up my report, I'd decided to copy my interviewees, who claimed to be "an unavoidable part of the transition mechanism" in their dysfunctional country. As my memoir recalls:

"Whatever else EXIT achieved, it helped me evolve, providing me with a personalized ‘transition mechanism’. Once accredited, I decamped to the press hotel, and embarked on a weeklong stint of immersion reporting, sozzling myself insensate every evening, and dancing like an amphetamine-powered windmill."

At EXIT, I met a disaffected Serb, who'd booked most of the artists on the programme. Since I was also disillusioned with my job, we got on well. High on traditional Balkan delusions of grandeur, we agreed we could stage a much bigger and better performance in Belgrade, on an island where the Danube meets the Sava.

How best to heal the wounds of a nation ruined by war, organised crime, economic collapse and the egregious nationalist Euro-pop called “turbo-folk”? With a four-day punk, jungle and techno rave on the former frontline between the Austrian and Turkish Empires, of course. MATTHEW COLLIN travels to the New Serbia to witness a countercultural rebirth so ecstatic that even the Prime Minister turned up to get down.

“We’re building a vibrant entertainment industry that cuts across Balkan borders; something dynamic to get excited about when many are frustrated with the slow pace of change. And we’re creating jobs in the industries of the future, reversing brain drain. Everyone will profit from long-term investment here.”

Our short-term investment in megalomania backfired. Without big sponsors to pick up the bills, we relied on loans from shady businessmen. This didn't end well.

The event went ahead, but the takings vanished, most likely stolen by our security, perhaps in collusion with my partners; maybe even as payback for stealing from EXIT (which was backed by the government, which was propped up by the mafia...)

All I really know is that ECHO was a one-off. Or at least I thought it was - until 2012. In the latest karmic twist, an event called ECHO launched that year, a decade after my EXIT inspiration. As billed on Twitter, it's "an intimate underground electronic music festival on the beautiful Adriatic coast of Croatia," where thousands of party-going tourists flock each year.

There are dozens of Balkan festivals these days. The "scene" we envisaged came about. I just didn't get rich, which was probably good for me. But I did get a few happy memories of Belgrade. See below for some highlights, or read this account of the headline show by Sonic Youth.

Promotional Videos

Festival Gallery

Big War Island

Pontoon Bridge

Main Stage

Final Night Crowd

Sonic Youth

Morcheeba

Matthew Herbert

Reggae Stage

Burning Spear

Eyesburn

Bristol Stage

Smith & Mighty

DJ Suv

Main Stage

Fun-Da-Mental

De Phazz

London Xpress Stage

Flooded Field

Ugly Adverts

TV Pink

Press Conference

Media Coverage

Click on the pictures to read selected articles.

Further Reading

Once upon a time, I was an ambitious young foreign correspondent for the New York Times. Disillusioned by the paper’s support for starting wars, I resigned to start a Balkan Summer of Love. Needless to say, this didn’t go as planned. A tragi-comic caper ensued, as this memoir records. It probably didn’t help making business deals with gangsters, but it seemed to make sense at the time. The experience taught me how not to change the world, and why getting high was not the same as being enlightened.